Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai To Fully Reopen

The Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai is exiting its closed-loop system, which was implemented to allow operations to resume despite the city's strict COVID-19 lockdowns.

Photo Insert: A Tesla Model 3 shipment from Giga Shanghai to Europe

With the closure of the closed loop, Giga Shanghai workers will be able to freely travel between their homes and places of work, Simon Alvarez reported for Teslarati on June 9, 2022.

However, Alvarez's optimism, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk shares, has been dashed by recent lockdowns imposed on Shanghai and Beijing following the discovery of new COVID-19 cases.

Since April 19, Tesla China employees at the Shanghai-based EV plant have been in a closed loop. Giga Shanghai was shut down in late March as the city prepared to go into a strict lockdown to combat the COVID-19 virus, and it took Tesla more than three weeks to resume operations at the plant.

According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), two executives with Tesla's suppliers confirmed Tesla's plans to exit Giga Shanghai's closed-loop system.

With the closure of the closed-loop system, Tesla China could fully concentrate on ramping up vehicle production, especially since the final month of the second quarter has already begun.

Last month, demand for Tesla vehicles in China fell by 98 percent as a result of the lockdown. Worse, Chinese buyers are shifting to cheaper domestic electric vehicles that have fewer issues than Tesla vehicles.

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